Expert Witness and Litigation Support Services

Expert Witness and Advisor

Joel Levitt is one of the leading consultants, speakers and authors in the field of Maintenance Management.

He can provide support for your legal team:

As an expert witness

To review the merits of individual cases

To provide background about the adequacy of a maintenance management system

To provide an expert’s opinion about the adequacy of procedures for ongoing maintenance, repair and overhaul activities of factories, energy and utility companies, mines, fleets and large buildings and facilities.

Some Options

Review maintenance records after an incident to determine if appropriate systems and procedures were followed or render an opinion if the procedures were adequate in the first place.

Investigate CMMS (computerized maintenance management systems) use and implementation. Frequently the only record of any maintenance done is stored in the CMMS. It is essential to know the reliability, soundness, completeness and accuracy of that data.

Investigate PM (Preventive Maintenance) activities to see if procedures were followed and if they were adequate or up to industry standards. The first place to look for evidence is usually in the PM system. Is the data real or faked? If it is real, is it adequate for the intended use?

The second place to look for evidence is within the work orders from assets involved in the incident (and others nearby). Review work orders and work order procedures and systems. All data in the CMMS comes from work orders, but is the data real and accurate?

If RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) or PMO (Preventive Maintenance Optimization) has been performed, Levitt can help evaluate if the process was followed adequately and if the organization reacted appropriately to the findings.

Review facts about both scheduled and unscheduled shutdowns and outages.

Determine if the negative effects of cost-cutting contributed to the incident.

Levitt has consulted with and trained more than 15,000 maintenance professionals since 1987. He has conducted over 500 training sessions in more than 20 countries, attended by members of most of the global Fortune 500 maintenance departments. Some of the firms that Mr. Levitt has provided consulting and training services to include: Abbott Labs, GE, US Navy, PacifiCorp, BP, Pepsi, Saturn (GM), Alcoa, Valero, SABIC (Saudi Arabia), Holcim Cement (Switzerland), Iron Ore of Canada, Jefferson University, Volvo, US NSA, USX, Philadelphia International Airport, International Airport of St. Maartin, US Army Corps of Engineers, Usibelli Coal (Alaska), Clark Elkhorn Coal, Cooper Industries, NJ Transit, Cisco Systems, Merck, Sony, CSX Railroad, Harley Davidson Motorcycle, Washington D.C. Metro Area Transit, and many more.

Examples of some recent speaking engagements

Instructor of 5 of the 7 classes at the University Of Alabama Certificate Of Maintenance Management (since 1989)

Nov. 2010 - speech on Lean Maintenance; led panel on World Class Maintenance for the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (second invitation)

2010 - Webinar led on Lean Maintenance for the Association for Facilities Engineering